Check Call: Employee attraction and retention trends for 2023

Welcome to Check Call, our corner of the internet for all things 3PL, freight broker and supply chain. Check Call the podcast comes out every Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. EST. Catch up on previous episodes here. If this was forwarded to you, sign up for Check Call the newsletter here.

Inside this edition: workplace trends for 2023; growing demand for industrial space at the border; and the hunt for a new CEO.

Make it work. It seems that the workplace trends have started to emerge for the year. Some of these trends are new and some are old friends rebranding into a new catchphrase — looking at you, quiet hiring. Layoffs are at the top of everyone’s mind, but there is still a very competitive labor market for those qualified candidates.

Quiet hiring is a fancy way of saying promotion. Companies will move workers from one department to another in lieu of hiring new employees. Previously it might have been known as “you get the work of two people now.” The main gripe with workers is that there isn’t typically any financial compensation that comes with it. Companies are leveraging it to get more done without adding any significant costs or headcount.

Hybrid flexibility is not going away anytime soon. More and more workers are looking for remote jobs and the supply of jobs has seemingly dried up. For those who aren’t on the remote bandwagon, hybrid and schedule flexibility is the next major hurdle. The push for flexible schedules for all workers will be the driving factor to attracting and retaining top talent. It could be a four-day workweek, hybrid work-life balance or improving employees’ quality of life.

In a perfect world, things would be fine and employees would be happy 24/7, but we don’t live in a perfect world. The big factor will be the toll it takes on managers with employees voicing their opinions, wants and needs versus corporate strategy. Managers are left in the middle trying to keep both parties happy but ultimately are hamstrung. This is where a significant amount of support will be needed. With middle managers who have direct reports, small changes will go far.

The pandemic exposed a lot of good and bad for companies. Employees remember that and employee retention and attraction is fundamentally different than it was before.

Nearshoring is the hottest topic sweeping the supply chain. Many major U.S. shippers have already made plans to move some manufacturing operations to Mexico. As anticipated from these announcements, real estate demand has skyrocketed on the border between the U.S. and Mexico. Customs brokers can expect quite the year for 2023 and into 2024 as business grows for raw materials going south and completed materials going north.

“The cross-border market is growing mostly due to the effects of nearshoring and e-commerce fulfillment centers coming to Mexico to take advantage of the 321 program, which allows duty-free entry of goods,” Eduardo Acosta, vice president of R.L. Jones Customhouse Brokers, told FreightWaves.

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Market check. Outbound tender rejections are the leading indicator of what is happening in the market. Higher outbound tender rejections mean tighter capacity and inflated spot rates. The outbound tender rejections by length of haul highlight the loads that carriers are more likely to accept. The good news is that almost all lengths are being accepted equally. Carriers are accepting more than 95% of loads. Local loads under 250 miles are the most widely accepted. When tendering out loads, knowing which ones carriers are more likely to accept gives a clearer picture of the market and rates can be adjusted accordingly.

Who’s with whom? Big things are happening over at Union Pacific and it doesn’t have to do with the ongoing rail union labor negotiations. CEO Lance Fritz is stepping down this year due to pressure from shareholders. The hunt for Fritz’s successor is on. Well, it’s actually been on since last year but publicly has been underway for a few days. This makes for the fourth CEO change for UP within the past two years.

Union Pacific’s board of directors said the ideal candidate would have “a strong track record of success and expertise across safety, operational excellence, enhancing and driving customer service, innovation, employee culture and sustainability. The Board is focusing the process on highly-qualified candidates both within the industry and adjacent industries to identify a CEO capable of leading the Company for a long-term tenure.”